86 Brauerei Beck & Co.
heavy barley ale that survived the rigors ot the trade routes.
Brauerei Beck & Co.
Am Deich 18-19
2800 Bremen 01
Germany
(421) 509 40
Fax: (421) 509 46 67
Private Company
Incorporated: 1873
Employees: 4,257
Sales: DM 1.30 billion (US$762 million)
SICs: 2082 Malt Beverages
Brauerei Beck & Co. is the world's largest exporter of beer,
accounting for more than one-third of the total exports of the
beverage from Germany. Sold in 140 countries, the company's
products have long been the most widely recognized beers from
a nation known for its breweries. Indeed, Beck’s beer cases are
labeled with the phrase “Found on Five Continents." Even in
its highly competitive German home market. Beck’s claims the
highest brand awareness and largest distribution of any beer.
The privately held firm also benefits from holdings of glass
manufacturing concerns and a bottling concession with Coca-
Cola Co.
The original breweries that today comprise the corporate entity
of Beck & Co. have roots that reach back to medieval limes in
Bremen, a major port on the Weser River. The city-state of
Bremen was an important member of the Hanseatic League, a
powerful federation formed by German merchants in the Mid-
dle Ages for trading and defense. Bremen's merchant class
tightly controlled Northern European shipping and commerce
for two centuries and influenced it for many more.
One of the largest exports out of the Bremen harbor during the
Middle Ages was beer from the city’s breweries, of which there
were more than 300. As early as the thirteenth century, this beer
was exported to Scandinavia, England, and Holland, and in
1489 the city’s breweries formed the Bremen Brewers’ Society
to regulate the production and export of the beverage. As
foreign markets clamored for Bremen’s beers in subsequent
centuries, competition increased, and only the brewers whose
products consistently withstood long sea journeys survived. By
1870 only 30 of the original 350 members of the Bremen
Brewer’s Society remained, including the Beck Brewery, which
had altered the chemical formulation of its beer to produce a
Until modern brewing technology was developed in the nine-
teenth century, this type of ale was a standard Beck product.
In the late nineteenth century, prominent Bremen business
leader Lueder Rutenberg incorporated the company that is
today known as Brauerei Beck & Co. after the Beck brewery
was merged with two other local breweries, Bierbrauerei Wil-
helm Remmerand Hemelinger Aktienbrauerei. In 1921 Beck &
Co. formed a cooperative agreement with another Bremen
brewery, the Brauerei C. H. Haake & Co. Control of the market
was divided between Beck & Co. and Haake, with Brauerei
Beck & Co. agreeing to produce beer for the export market
under the brand name of Beck's, while Haake-Beck Brauerei
AG would sell its products under the names Haake-Beck,
Remmer, and Hemelinger in the domestic German market.
Haake-Beck Brauerei was later made a subsidiary of Beck &
Co., making Brauerei Beck the largest privately owned brewery
in Germany.
The location of Beck & Co. in the port city of Bremen contrib-
uted to its success and played an influential role in many
outward aspects of the firm. Bremen's status as a major player
in North European commerce facilitated Beck's delivery to
several foreign ports. The reputation of the Bremen brewers
solidified the beer's potential to hold and maintain increasing
shares of foreign markets. Although the beer was at first shipped
in the traditional barrels. Beck & Co. began exporting bottles
sheathed in straw and packed in weighty wooden crates to
withstand high seas.
In its advertising Beck & Co. features an important aspect of its
history—the Reinheitsgebot, or Purity Law, enacted by the
Bavarian Court of Duke Wilhelm IV in 1516. The law specified
that only malted barley, yeast, hops, and water could be used in
beer brewed in Germany for the German market. German beer
exporters stress this law in citing the long tradition of excellence
of German beers, but not all brew their export beer in compli-
ance with the statute. All of Beck’s beers, according to the
company's literature, contain only hops grown in the nearby
Tettnag and Hallertau regions, water from Geest-area springs
and the reservoirs of the Harz mountains, and a particular strain
of yeast cultivated for decades by the brew masters at the
Bremen plant.
Each year the city of Bremen holds the Schaffermahl, a formal
dinner held in mid-February that dates back to the sixteenth
century when the Haus Seefahrt Foundation established the
gathering to raise money for needy sailors. Prominent guests
gather in the city hall, smoke traditional white clay pipes, and
dine on a meal of dried fish and smoked pork. The most
important part of the dinner, however, is the beer brewed by
Beck & Co. especially for the occasion and drunk from pewter
tankards. This is a version of the company’s original Seefahrts-
bier, the extremely strong quaff that could withstand long sea
voyages.
The evolution of lager beers (“lager" being German for "to
store”) was spurred by technological developments, including
research into yeast cultures and fermentation as well as the
invention of refrigeration. In bottom-fermented beer, the yeast
sinks to the bottom, which makes for a clearer beer that is less

likely to sour, but which needs to be stored and cooled longer
than top-fermented ales. Beck & Co., like the other major
German breweries, began producing lager beers late in the
nineteenth century.
Because of its chemistry, beer had a relatively short shelf life,
until modern brewing and storing methods improved matters.
Beck & Co. has continually invested in state-of-the-art brewing
facilities, applying technological innovations to improve prod-
uct quality. For instance. Beck & Co. managed to greatly reduce
the oxygen count of its product to give it a longer shelf life.
Beck & Co. was also one of the first breweries to use the modern
keg. These have been improved by using stainless steel con-
tainers as well as a hygienic tap system that helps lengthen the
amount of time beer can be stored and reduces the risk of
contamination involved in pouring draft beers.
Today Beck & Co. is the last brewer remaining in the city of
Bremen. However, the brand name of Beck’s is found only on
bottles exported out of Germany; the company’s Haake-Beck,
Remmer, and Hemelinger lines are brewed specifically for
domestic consumers. These three brands retain their vestigial
names to help differentiate them in a large and diverse home
market and remind drinkers of Bremen's long brewing history.
Each of them, while targeting different domestic markets, also
represents a distinct product, reflecting the dissimilar tastes of
Germans for their beer. Haake-Beck’s beer is distributed
throughout all of Germany, while the Hemelinger and Remmer
brands are part of the tradition of local specialty beers found in
and around Bremen. Also carrying the Remmer brand name is a
light beer with a lower alcohol and calorie content that is
distributed throughout Germany.
On the international market. Beck & Co. attempts to appeal to
the widest range of tastes while still adhering to German brew-
ing standards. The Beck’s beer sold in North America, for
instance, is a much lighter version of a traditional German brew.
Here, the products found under the Beck’s label, in addition to
the flagship lager, include Beck’s Dark, Beck’s Light, and
Haake-Beck. These are imported by Dribeck Importers Inc. of
Greenwich, Connecticut, a subsidiary founded in 1964.
Although there are several thousand breweries producing re-
gional beers, Beck & Co. is one of the few that distributes
throughout all of reunified Germany. The fall of the Berlin Wall
in 1989 opened up a huge new market of consumers for German
companies. Beer brewed in the former East Germany by state-
owned breweries was poor in quality due to a shortage of raw
materials and antiquated machinery. Frequently adulterated
with com or rice. East German beer required additives to
enhance shelf-life and therefore did not meet Reinheitsgebot
standards.
Shortly after trade between the two Germanies was fully re-
established, Beck & Co. began selling its products in the former
Brauerei Beck & Co. 87
East German states and achieved remarkable gains in sales, due
in part to the novelty of West German beer among consumers
there. In April of 1991 Beck & Co. acquired the Rostocker
Brauerei VEB. formerly a state-owned company in Rostock, a
port on the Baltic Sea. Although Beck & Co. had to invest
heavily to upgrade the brewery's equipment, it gave the com-
pany an excellent position from which to target the East German
market, brewing a new and improved Rostocker for East Ger-
mans consumers. In addition, the geographical location of the
newly acquired brewery permitted easier access for exports of
Beck’s beer to areas within the former Soviet Union. By 1992
Beck’s products were sold in most of the former Eastern Bloc
countries.
Consumers around the globe are drawn to import beers for their
sophisticated edge. Beck & Co. has sought to position itself as
part of a centuries-old tradition of German brewing excellence,
stressing both the company's longevity and the quality of its
product. In the 1980s, however, a North American trend toward
moderation in alcohol consumption had a significant impact on
import sales, while a weakened U.S. dollar also made it difficult
for foreign companies such as Beck & Co. to keep prices low.
Competition in the beer market became fierce as consumers’
palates became more discriminating. The company’s inroads
into Eastern Europe did help offset the decrease in import sales
by its Dribeck subsidiary in the United States. In addition,
Brauerei Beck & Co. expected a unified Germany to provide
great opportunity for expansion and profit.
Principal Subsidiaries; Nienburger Glas GmbH & Co. KG
(92%); Bremer Erfrischungsgetraenke-GmbH; Rostocker
Brauerei GmbH; Haake-Beck Brauerei AG (95.17%); Dribeck
Importers Inc. (U.S.A.).
Further Reading:
Anderson, Will. From Peer to Eternity: Everything You Always Wanted
to Know About Beer, Lexington. MA: Stephen Greene Press, 1987.
"Beck’s Counts Itself Among German Gems,” New York Times. No-
vember 21, 1992, p. DI9.
"Bulging Beck’s," Food and Beverage Marketing. April 1992. p. 43.
Dennis, Darienne L., "How About a Beer?" Fortune. August 1, 1988,
p. 8.
Fahey, Alison, “Party Hardly." Adweek's Brandweek. October 26.
1992. pp. 24-25.
Finch, Christopher, Beer: A Connoisseur 's Guide to the World's Best.
New York: Abbeville Press, 1989.
Gorman, John, “Beer Lovers Spread the Word: Beck’s,” Chicago
Tribune. May 17, 1985, sec. 3, pp. 1-2.
Hemphill, Gary A.. "Imports: A Taste of Reality," Beverage Industry,
September 1989. pp. 1-26.
Jackson. Michael, ed . The World Guide to Beer. New York: Prentice-
Hall, 1977.
—Carol Brennan